Favorite places for NAVER Maps
Naver Map is one of the most renowned map platforms in Korea. During my time there, my main task involved increasing the number of users for the 'Favorites' feature and addressing their demands.
Role
UX Designer
Area
End-To-End/Strategy/Research/Wireframe
Team
2 UX Designers(incl. myself)
1 UI Designer
2 Back-end Developers
2 iOS Developers
2 Android Developers
Timeline
10 months
(2018.03-2019.01)
Background & Misson
Problem Statement
How can we make it easier for users to save places to their Favorites?
Process
Focused on market positioning.
Utilized evidence-based design.
Designing the “favorite places” of NAVER Maps, the search results, required understanding the existing design and ensuring consistency.
Before
Developing
01
Plan
02
Problem definition
03
Wireframes & Specification
04
Release (Jan 2018)
Business Problem
Evaluate previous flow
Analyzing user data
Interviewing target users
Tackling a major unexpected issue
Findings
User Flow & Interation
Mid-fi Prototypes
Feature Specification
Achievements
After the release, we documented a 60% increase in editing actions such as adding a nickname and creating new lists.
+22%
Active Users
+37.5%
Saved places per user
Total saved places
+51%
Background
In the previous 'Favorites' feature, users had difficulty saving and editing their favorite locations, leading to low user engagement. My goal was to solve these issues and improve the user experience.
Exploration
Step 1
Evaluate previous flow
The ‘Select list’ button was difficult to find
After saving a place to favorites,
users should be able to categorize which list the place is saved to.
However, the "Select list" button was shown only in an alert message which disappeared after 3 seconds.
Existing Save Flow
It can be frustrating to have separate and convoluted paths
to edit and manage your saved places.
It required 3 steps to edit and group the locations within the lists:
go into edit mode in the list page > select list > Add nickname/Move/Delete
Existing edit Flow
I realized that our app features were not competitive
in the map services market.
Users' personalization
Performance
NAVER map
Kakao map
Google map
Multiple list
Decoration features
Following
Socialization
1. If a place was saved in one list,
it could not be saved in another.
2. There were no personalization and socialization features.
Step 2
Analyzing user data
I analyzed the number of page views and clicks on events. The “Edit” feature was rarely used.
Page views(Weekly)
1
Place Details
2
Favorites list
4
Saved Popup
3
Edit feature
Edit feature Clicks
Nickname
65.12%
Delete
24.18%
Change list
10.7%
10~19
20~24
25~29
30~34
35~39
40~44
45~49
50~59
60+
Age
Count
2.5M
5M
7.5M
10M
4.6 per user
3.4 per user
6.3 per user
5.7 per user
5 per user
3.3 per user
3.7 per user
3.5 per user
2.6 per user
100
75
50
25
60.2%
41.7%
39.8%
58.3%
NAVER
MAPS
Favorite
Places
Female
Male
People between 20 and 39 years old save
more than 4 places each on average.
There are 1.5 times more women than men using the Favorite place feature.
Step 3
Interviewing target users
We conducted user interviews with the target user group and created experience flows to better understand how users discover, use, and manage their favorites.
From our interviews, we learned that users were unhappy with the convoluted editing and management of their saved locations, leading us to conclude that user frustrations and data points aligned.
users’ experience of saving and using favorited places
User 01
“If it looks good, save it so you don't have to go back and look for it later. It's hard to pick another list and save it.”
User 02
I didn't realize that I could create a new list when I saved, so I felt uncomfortable creating lists.”
User 06
“Menu > Favorites > Lists seems like a long way to go, it would be nice to have a direct entry point.”
User 08
User 01
User 05
“It's very inconvenient that the Naver map list can't be shared."
User 07
“It's nice to have it saved in advance so that if I have an appointment later, I can find it without having to search for it.”
User 03
Make Maps favorites shareable and noteable.
User 07
User 01
Step 4
Tackling a major unexpected issue
The 'Save Places' feature on NAVER Search did not align well with NAVER Map App, resulting in a different user experience.
In reality, the two products were not using the same databases.
Users were confused about why they could not see their data across Naver Map App when they saved places on Naver App.
Naver Search feature involved
adding tags to places.
NAVER Map's saving feature involved saving places to lists.
List
Tag (#)
Findings
In conclusion, we have made the following three modifications to enhance the user-friendliness of the 'favorites' feature:
The research helped us identify our key priorities for this round: sharing, multiple lists, and enhanced editing functions.
Most users want...
To save and edit conveniently
It should be easier to save and edit places, whether on the map or in the Favorites menu.
Enhanced place information as personal content
Users want to save, manage, and share places as their own content.
Improved location storage performance
The API structure was refactored for multi-list location storage, and a unified 'Saving' experience on NAVER. Users can seamlessly store, view, and utilize locations across NAVER.
Final Design
New user flow Favorites
Users can easily save and edit with the save modal and ‘more’ button.
Create list
Place name
& Nickname
Favorite lists
Edit menu
Favorite Places List
Edit menu
“Saving” bottom sheet
“More” icon
01
To save and edit conveniently
02
Enhanced place information as personal content
I designed an architectural flow to evaluate
all the action buttons and the flow for sharing lists.
USER A
USER B
Share
USER B can view and follow USER A's list.
List 1
List 1
Place A
Place A
Place B
Place B
Place C
Place C
Place D
Place D
I wanted to create a seamless experience between editing and sharing favorites.
03
Improved location storage performance
The API structure was revamped for multi-list location storage
and unified the 'Saving' experience on NAVER.
Users can seamlessly store, view, and utilize locations across NAVER.
AS IS
TO BE
List A
List A
List B
List C
Place A
Place A
Place A
Place A
AS IS
TO BE
NAVER MAP
NAVER SEARCH
Migration
List
Tag (#)
No Tag
List
NAVER MAP
NAVER SEARCH
My list
List
My list
List
Takeaways
Experience planning using the location data API
When the reliability and quality of location information are improved,
users enjoy using location-based services more.
The importance of goal alignment and clear communication
with stakeholders
The different perspectives of the stakeholders led to gaps in understanding,
which we overcame by adopting an agile framework, including weekly scrum meetings
and bi-weekly review meetings to assess what had gone well and what needed to be improved.
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